I think 520 series are older than 330 and 335 series. However, 520 gears more toward enterprise class applications.

Here is a quote from AnandTech site regarding 520 vs 330

" The 330 and 520 are very similar drives. The 330's primary differentiation comes from its use of cheaper, lower endurance MLC NAND. I'll get to the math behind why this isn't an issue at all for most users shortly. Conceptually, the 330 vs. the 520 is very similar to Kingston's HyperX 3K vs. regular HyperX drive. Just like with frequency binning for CPUs, there's endurance binning for NAND. Lower endurance parts are more plentiful (and thus cheaper) while the highest endurance parts will be sold for a premium (e.g. MLC-HET). If Intel does its job right, most of the stuff in the middle should be very good. And if it does its job really well, even the lower endurance parts should be more than good enough.

Intel's SSD 330 also carries a different firmware version from the 520: 300i vs. 400i. The firmware changes are likely minor in nature, however one major change is the loss of Intel's E2/E3/E4 SMART attributes for quick endurance testing. As I mentioned in our look at Intel SSDs in the enterprise, you can use these attributes to determine write amplification and estimate NAND longevity of a given workload. Intel views these as enterprise features, and with the 330's focus exclusively as a client drive it loses the features. You still have an accurate count of total host writes vs. NAND writes, as well as Intel's media wear indicator that lets you know what percentage of p/e cycles you have exhausted. I suspect this is more of Intel's famous forced segmentation at work rather than true delineation between client and datacenter drives. Depending on the server and workload, the 330 could be just fine."

resin

Ancient Member

posted: Dec. 26, 2012 @ 11:21a

The 520 is a better model. This is on par with the $99 BF price for the 180 given the product being sold here.

cohenfive

Senior Member

posted: Dec. 26, 2012 @ 12:33p

i've been looking for one of these. thanks op!

Nyago123

Broke Member

posted: Dec. 26, 2012 @ 12:41p

520 Series = Toggle NAND. If you don't know what that means, it probably doesn't matter to you and you can leave these drives for those of us for whom it does matter.

In for two (one online, one in store pickup) to expand my Hyper-V RAID array.

jsimon7777

Member

posted: Dec. 26, 2012 @ 1:08p

It's a fast drive. I got a 120 for less from Newegg Business a bit ago. I'm happy.

ShortChop

Enthusiastic Member

posted: Dec. 26, 2012 @ 1:29p

n41 ty OP, local too!!

cohenfive

Senior Member

posted: Dec. 26, 2012 @ 1:38p

does anyone know if this is the retail package with the install kit?

dmicohen

Thrifty Member

posted: Dec. 26, 2012 @ 2:39p

No, this is bare drive for laptop install... I made a bracket with two screws and attached it to a free bay in my case...very simple to install ( I did it)...lol. Dave. Ps. Nice Find@price!! Good luck..

Lyrrad

Member

posted: Dec. 26, 2012 @ 5:30p

Nyago123 said: 520 Series = Toggle NAND. If you don't know what that means, it probably doesn't matter to you and you can leave these drives for those of us for whom it does matter.

In for two (one online, one in store pickup) to expand my Hyper-V RAID array.

I don't think the 520 has Toggle NAND. According to the review you linked to, as well as Tom's Hardware, it has Synchronous NAND, although the review states that the speeds are very close to the Toggle NAND.

In any case, this is a great deal. I'm trying to decide between this deal or other SSDs in the 250GB range.

Integrator

Member

posted: Dec. 26, 2012 @ 9:18p

If you want size (240GB or more) wait for another deal. If you want longer warranty, fast drive and intel name - get this one. I've got the one in 240GB, but for a laptop may as well get 330 in 240gb for about the same price. The difference in speed will be mostly unnoticeable for typical laptop use.

Its 7mm drive with 2.5 mm spacecer screwed in on drive. you can easily remove the srews and spacer to install in 7mm bay. but that might void warranty???

Integrator

Member

posted: Dec. 27, 2012 @ 12:14p

no, it won't void the warranty. that spacer is there for a reason and is designed to be removed if needed. Some laptop's drive bays require you to lay the drive on it's top surface and then slide it on to the connector. Without the spacer - it would be suspended in the air only by the rigidity of the SATA+POWER connectors. You can remove the spacer to install the driver in a system that is designed for a slimmer disk drive.

jwsm

Thrifty Member

posted: Dec. 27, 2012 @ 1:22p

cohenfive said: does anyone know if this is the retail package with the install kit?

Yes, these are retail drives, not OEM. They come in a box with a desktop installation kit.

Nyago123

Broke Member

posted: Dec. 27, 2012 @ 2:14p

Lyrrad said: I don't think the 520 has Toggle NAND. According to the review you linked to, as well as Tom's Hardware, it has Synchronous NAND, although the review states that the speeds are very close to the Toggle NAND.

In any case, this is a great deal. I'm trying to decide between this deal or other SSDs in the 250GB range.

I sit corrected. I did some more research and according to xbitlabs, this drive uses (proprietary) Synchronous 25nm ONFI 2.2 NAND.

I guess if there is only one complaint I'd have it is the odd size... putting these into a RAID array makes it harder to replace because 180's are harder to find than 256's (or someday when one fails I might have to put a 256 in and waste space). But for this price it serves me well enough and I can wait the market out.

ams30

Tired Member

posted: Dec. 27, 2012 @ 4:06p

Just installed mine. DAYUM this thing is fast!

jwsm

Thrifty Member

posted: Dec. 28, 2012 @ 1:43p

jawrat said: Uhm, how different is this from the 330 series drives? I bought a 180Gb 330 series drive a couple of months back from the egg for $99. Are the 520's better or just newer?The 520 series SSD's are higher end drives with higher performance specs due to the use of better and higher quality NAND. NAND used in the series have been carefully cherry-picked and had to pass very stringent tests. They also have a longer warranty(5 years vs 3 for the 330 series).

cohenfive

Senior Member

posted: Dec. 29, 2012 @ 2:34a

did anyone get one of these to confirm they are retail drives with install kit? i've seen both oem and retail posted here. thx.

ams30

Tired Member

posted: Dec. 29, 2012 @ 3:31a

cohenfive said: did anyone get one of these to confirm they are retail drives with install kit? i've seen both oem and retail posted here. thx.

I got mine B&M so yes it was retail. It has a bracket inside, but wouldn't consider it a mounting kit. Good enough to install it though.

cohenfive

Senior Member

posted: Dec. 29, 2012 @ 9:34a

ams30 said: cohenfive said: did anyone get one of these to confirm they are retail drives with install kit? i've seen both oem and retail posted here. thx.

I got mine B&M so yes it was retail. It has a bracket inside, but wouldn't consider it a mounting kit. Good enough to install it though.

so it came in the retail intel blue box that says 'includes deskop install kit'? is ghosting software included or do you just download it from intel?

xkxrome0ox

Shopaholic Member

posted: Dec. 29, 2012 @ 8:32p

i was going to wait until a high end 240-256GB came down to this price range ... but all the positive responses convinced me to get the 520 series 180GB nownot that i need help spending more money... but thank you all for the input

jwsm

Thrifty Member

posted: Dec. 29, 2012 @ 10:37p

xkxrome0ox said: i was going to wait until a high end 240-256GB came down to this price range ... but all the positive responses convinced me to get the 520 series 180GB nownot that i need help spending more money... but thank you all for the inputYeah, I've been wanting to jump on the SSD bandwagon myself since they first came out but didn't because I wanted to wait for the technology to mature a bit and for prices to come down to more reasonable and affordable levels before taking the plunge. I've had my eye on the 520 series for some time now due to all the good things that I've read about them and have just been waiting for a good deal on them. This deal couldn't have come at a better time because I just had two hard drives die on me in the past month. I tell ya...I'm done with traditional hard drives.

cwizardtx

New Member

posted: Dec. 30, 2012 @ 1:58p

These are fantastic quality. Five year warranty. Haven't had ONE fail yet. We picked up some just to put into inventory.

jwsm

Thrifty Member

posted: Dec. 30, 2012 @ 3:06p

Looks like the sale is still going on. I'm surprised they haven't sold out yet.

cohenfive

Senior Member

posted: Dec. 31, 2012 @ 6:11p

intel can make a lot of drives.....probably plenty left to sell..

xkxrome0ox

Shopaholic Member

posted: Dec. 31, 2012 @ 8:02p

jwsm said: Looks like the sale is still going on. I'm surprised they haven't sold out yet.i was worried about order cancellation and what not but got my shipping confirmation today

Stylo

Member

posted: Jan. 3, 2013 @ 2:45p

Can't wait to get mine. Just put an Intel X25 into my Thinkpad and it's really zippy.

jwsm

Thrifty Member

posted: Jan. 4, 2013 @ 4:54a

Finally had time to install the drives and set up my stripe array. Windows Experience Index subscore for the hard disk jumped from a score of 5.9(before on a single WD 500GB hdd) to a perfect score of 7.9! Haven't had a chance to really put the system through its paces yet but I definitely notice a difference. System now is very responsive with absolutely no lag whatsoever. Will be doing more testing over the weekend.....

ams30

Tired Member

posted: Jan. 4, 2013 @ 5:09a

cohenfive said: ams30 said: cohenfive said: did anyone get one of these to confirm they are retail drives with install kit? i've seen both oem and retail posted here. thx.

I got mine B&M so yes it was retail. It has a bracket inside, but wouldn't consider it a mounting kit. Good enough to install it though.

so it came in the retail intel blue box that says 'includes deskop install kit'? is ghosting software included or do you just download it from intel?

Sure did.

anquach902

Broke Member

posted: Jan. 4, 2013 @ 7:58a

I've had very positive experience with Intel SSD so far: fast, reliable, and durable. I'm still using the 80GB drive that I bought 3 years ago for ~$250. Now this is time to upgrade with larger size and less money. Thanks OP!

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